Here's a question......

[AGENDA21]

Here's a question. If I understand this right, Scooter Libby has sworn under oath that Vice President Cheney told him that President Bush had authorized him to disclose classified information.

Let's set aside the whole question of whether the president can do that or whether there's a specific procedure he has to follow. Just set that issue aside.

If it isn't true that Vice President Cheney told him that, then Vice President Cheney must know that Libby has again perjured himself. I would think the Vice President has an affirmative duty to come forward and say that Libby's testimony is false.

I just overheard Jeff Toobin on CNN saying that the White House will probably be able to squelch this story simply by 'no commenting' it. But can we not fairly draw the inference from Cheney's silence that he did in fact tell Libby this?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_04_02.php#008150

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Jeff Toobin is obviously full of shit

this story is like a tsunami and we're just see the first ripple of the coming tidal wave.

[pacalo]

5. And I savored today's Cafferty letters on the subject.

He read maybe 6 letters, all of which were condemning of this administration's corrupt way of doing business.

They seemed add a moment of sanity after listening to Bob Bennett's spin ("The pResident can declassify anything he wants -- this is nothing"). The people aren't buying it anymore.

[LSparkle]

2. I don't think they're disputing that it's true

I think their position is that what Libby did was legal. Problem is, it wasn't very ethical, it misled the public, and will cause them MAJOR political pain.

[pacalo]

6. They're forgetting about obstruction of justice.

The cabal wasn't very forthcoming to the FBI investigation. That includes "lost" e-mails.

[madame defarge]

3. Considering...

that they've managed to comment about just about everything else, perhaps "no comment" implies guilt. But I would expect that there are a lot of chickenhawks with their heads cut off running around in the West Wing trying to figure out what to say...

[madame defarge]

4. Also...

Atrios has some good stuff on his site now about this...including:

It's probably reasonable that the president can declassify whatever he wants, or at least I haven't really seen an especially strong argument to the contrary, but that doesn't mean that the president can declassify stuff, show it to Judy Miller, and then turn around claim the stuff is still classified. That's where this argument falls apart.

...as well as comments from Schneider & Harmon... http://atrios.blogspot.com/